Critical trust : Social movements and democracy in times of crisis

Séminaires METICES
Dans le cadre des séminaires Metices 2012-2013 sur le thème
« Les formes contemporaines de l’action collective »
avec le soutien de l’Association belge de science politique (ABSP-CF)
Groupe de travail « Questions sociales/Conflits sociaux »
Critical trust : Social movements
and democracy in times of crisis
Donatella della Porta
European University Institute, Florence
Discutant :
Geoffrey Pleyers (FNRS/Université Catholique de Louvain)
Jeudi 18 octobre 2012 de 18 à 20h
Salle Henri Janne – 15è niveau
Institut de Sociologie
Centre METICES – Institut de Sociologie – 44 avenue Jeanne - 1050 Bruxelles
Contact : Manuela Bruyndonckx +322/ 650 3451 – [email protected]
http://metices.ulb.ac.be
Les séminaires METICES sont organisés avec le soutien de la Faculté des sciences sociales et
politiques
Critical trust : Social movements and democracy in times of crisis
Donatella della Porta (European University Institute)
Abstract
The recent financial crisis and, especially, anti-austerity policies, reflects and, at the same
time, contribute to a crisis of representative democracy. Indignados’ movements in Spain
and Greece as well as the Occupying Wall Street protest in the US are just the most visible
reaction of a widespread dissatisfaction with the declining quality of democratic regimes.
They testify for the declining legitimacy of traditional conceptions of democracy, as well as
for the declining trust in representative institutions. At the same time, however, these
movements conceptualize and practice different democratic models that emphasize
participation over delegation and deliberation over majority voting. In doing this, they
present a potential for reconstructing social and political trust from below.
Biography
Donatella della Porta is professor of sociology in the Department of Political and Social
Sciences at the European University Institute and professor of political science at the Istituto
Italiano di Scienze Umane (on leave of absence). At the EUI, she has launched COSMOS
(Consortium on Social Movement Studies). She is now starting a major ERC project Mobilizing
for Democracy, on civil society participation in democratization processes in Europe, the
Middle East, Asia and Latin America. She is co-editor of the European Political Science
Reviews (ECPR-Cambridge University Press. In 2011, she was the recipient of the Mattei
Dogan Prize for distinguished achievements in the field of political sociology. directed the
Demos project, devoted to the analysis of conceptions and practices of democracy in
social movements in six European countries Her main fields of research are social
movements, the policing of public order, participatory democracy and political corruption.
Among her very recent publications are: Mobilizing on the Extreme Right (with M. Caiani and
C. Wagemann), Oxford University Press, 2012; Meeting Democracy (ed. With D. Rucht),
Cambridge University Press, 2012; The Hidden Order of Corruption (with A. Vannucci),
Ashgate 2012; Los movimientos sociales (with M. Diani), Madrid, CIS, 2011; Democrazie, Il
Mulino, 2011; L’intervista qualitativa, Laterza 2011; (with M. Caiani), Social Movements and
Europeanization, Oxford University Press, 2009; (ed.) Another Europe, Routledge, 2009; (ed.)
Democracy in Social Movements, Palgrave, 2009; Approaches and Methodologies in the
Social Sciences (with M. Keating), Cambridge University Press; (with Gianni Piazza), Voices
from the Valley; Voices from the Streat Berghan, 2008; The Global Justice Movement,
Paradigm, 2007; (with M. Andretta, L. Mosca and H. Reiter), Globalization from Below, The
University of Minnesota Press; (with A. Peterson and H. Reiter), The policing transnational
protest, Ashgate 2006; (with M. Diani), Social Movements: an introduction, 2nd edition,
Blackwell, 2006; (with S. Tarrow), Transnational Protest and Global Activism, Rowman and
Littlefield, 2005.